


The Ranger and the Road

by Lance_Manly_Sorcerer_Of_Sin



Category: Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types, Original Work
Genre: Blood and Violence, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, F/F, Furry, Intersex, Lesbian Sex, No Dungeons & Dragons Knowledge Required, No Lesbians Die
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:28:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24021322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lance_Manly_Sorcerer_Of_Sin/pseuds/Lance_Manly_Sorcerer_Of_Sin
Summary: Striking Talon (yes, that is her real name) is a skilled monster hunter who patrols the region around her home, keeping folks safe from monsters and people alike.  One night proves to be more fateful than the rest as, in the process of rescuing a dwarvish poet from a wicked phase spider, Talon finds herself roving out into the unknown world at large to uncover the mysteries of nature's unraveling.  She meets a colorful cast of characters and fights, fucks, or flexes her way through a myriad of dangerous adventures as she attempts to figure out why the planes themselves are beginning to tear at the seams.This story stars many LGBT characters and characters of color and is explicit, featuring graphic depictions of monster slaying and pussy slaying alike.
Kudos: 5





	The Ranger and the Road

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a work in progress and I will be regularly updating it. Hopefully. Seriously.
> 
> Please believe me.
> 
> Striking Talon is a Tabaxi Ranger and a character of mine from 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. Tabaxi are tall, lean, cat-folk and Rangers are magical warriors who defend nature and society alike from the darkest reaches of the world. That's about all you need to know before you can dive in!

The forest was gloomy tonight. Moonlight didn’t dare show its face from behind heavy clouds, and Talon’s torch seemed dim despite the new wrap. A bitter wind gnashed and chewed at the flickering flame as she walked, her head on a swivel as though expecting a lurch from every shadow. It was unusual, the chill up her spine. Unusual, but not unfamiliar.

Monstrosities were about.

A silver gleam caught the tabaxi’s eye as she stepped over a rotten piece of bark in the path, turning to look at a long, thin strand of something stretched between two nearby saplings. A step closer and the flickering torchlight illuminated an unusually long and thick string of spiderweb. Talon grimaced. She didn’t want to leave the path for even a moment, but she had to know. Her paws made no sound as she gently picked her way into the brush to examine the webbing closer, eying a narrow rivulet of some thin, blue liquid clinging to its length.

A phase spider’s venom.

Turning back to the path, Talon set off at a quicker pace. The tabaxi didn’t intend to face monstrous spiders in the dead of night, alone, and she knew that continuing down the road would round out the northern side of the forest and get her to more relative safety at the checkpoint. The remainder of the trip should only take a couple hours and a hard drink at the checkpoint’s tavern didn’t sound like a bad idea. Torch in one hand and the other ready to go for a weapon at a moment’s notice, the tabaxi kept her keen and paranoid eyes on every shadow as she passed.

Striking Talon was a ranger, and a damn good one at that. The claymore on her back wasn’t for show, and neither were the bow, arrows, hand axes, leather cuirass, nor the repertoire of nature magic she commanded. But an experienced outlander knew that poison didn’t mix well with alone. In fact, it made alone quickly turn into alone and dead with fair frequency. Talon didn’t travel with company too often, but even less often did she find herself dead, and she meant to keep it that way.

A muffled holler down the road reminded her why her plans didn’t always come to fruition.

Talon broke into a sprint, torchlight stretching and distorting alongside her with the sheer speed of her strides. Just as a precaution, she drew a hand axe from her belt and held it at her side, ready to throw at a moment’s notice as another holler caught her ears. She rounded a bend in the road which curved down a short decline into a switchback, skipping the second bend with a quick leap to carry her momentum straight on rather than zigzag back and forth.

Another cry, this one longer and closer. She could make out the deep bassy tones of speech but couldn’t quite parse the words. As the tabaxi sprinted down the path and neared a grouping of saplings in the brush, she spotted a small square shape along the ground. Skidding to a halt, she squatted down and found she was looking at a leather-bound book with a cover lovingly inked in silver stars. The tabaxi cocked her head curiously to the side. What on earth was this doing out here?

“I SAID GET **BACK** YE BIG WHITE MONGREL!” 

Talon’s ears swiveled toward the source of the shouting: Off the path and into the brush, not another hundred feet. She pivoted and rushed in, leaping over a patch of berry bushes and fully embracing the dark of the forest. The light of her torch illuminated a long, sticky strand of web stretched between two trees off to the side, and then another, and then dozens. Soon, the source became clear as a gleaming patchwork of spiderwebs spiraled together into one huge mess between two rotten trees dead ahead. And, caught in that web, was a thrashing dwarven women holding a lamp in her only non-entangled limb, its diminutive light illuminating the massive figure of a gleaming white-and-blue spider perched just above her.

Talon’s feet skipped and skidded to a stop as she turned and put all her weight on her back leg, carrying the momentum forward for one last step as she lurched and hurled the hand axe with deadly accuracy. The blade buried itself into the flesh of the creature’s thorax in a flash of steel and grimy white blood, and it responded with a high-pitched chittering that caused the tabaxi’s ears to fold back in disgust. The dwarf cried out in surprise and nearly lost her lamp, eyes wide and darting between the weapon and the tabaxi.

“AYE WHAT A **SHOT**!” 

Talon discarded her torch onto a patch of dirt and reached back with both hands, drawing the sturdy iron claymore from her back as she strode closer. Her steps were measured and cautious, ready to react to any sudden flash of movement from the creature. Sure enough, as she closed in within fifteen feet, the bleeding monstrosity swiveled all two dozen of its eyes towards her.

And disappeared.

The dwarf began to shimmy excitedly from her webby prison.

“YE GOT IT! Holy _hells_ , ye got it with one hit! Look at that! Hurry and cut me down afore more show up, quick-like!”

Talon swallowed and bent her legs slightly, weight on the pads of her paws. Her head was yet again on a swivel, listening and looking for a sign as she completely ignored the dwarf for now. The dwarf did not like this.

“Hey, are ye listenin’? Oh gods, yer not a bandit are ye? Look, just cut me down and I’ll give ye whatever money I’ve got!”

The tabaxi glared daggers at the woman, icy blue eyes flashing in the dancing light of the half-extinguished torch on the ground.

“Shut up, it’s not dead.”

The sound that resonated from behind Talon was like rippling fabric magnified, as though the plane itself was gently shuddering. There was a sense of anticipation and release to it, like the kind of groan one enunciates upon feeling the touch of a lover after a long time apart, like the Ethereal Plane was ushering the creature forth in a shaky sigh. Talon pivoted on her toes and raised the great iron blade in her hands in a blind guard, grunting as the spider collided with her. Its teeth, like long black daggers dripping with bright viscous venom, caught upon the side of her blade within inches of her face and neck.

It hit the tabaxi like a runaway wagon, knocking the wind out of her and sending her sprawling to the ground. At the very least, her raised weapon had kept the creature’s fangs at bay, and she was able to roll back up onto her feet. Gasping to catch her breath, the ranger shuddered and bared her fangs at the creature as it reeled back to charge.

**_“Vol!”_ **

Her voice boomed with power even as she could hardly breath, the word of power resonating with the leaves and grass around her. The spider charged, and Talon leapt to the side and raised her sword. The ranger heaved her blade in a carving downward strike, slicing into the hard chitinous armor of the creature’s thorax and down into the fatty, sinewy flesh of its center. Her resonating spell made itself known as a tangle of thorn-covered vines exploded out of the ground around the creature, entangling its long and spindly legs. The spider thrashed and spit, its huge body rocking against the writhing mass of vines as they curled about it and held it fast, thorns bulging into its form and drawing blood.

Striking Talon carried her momentum out of her strike and pivoted to follow up with another but felt a sudden loss of tension in her midsection. She stumbled and fell next to her discarded torch, hitting the ground with a gasp, her blade landing out of reach nearby. Looking down at the sudden flash of hot pain that seared her flesh, she saw the spider’s venom drooling from a wound in her side.

_Shit._

“GET ‘EM! **GET ‘EM!** ” the dwarf’s voice cried out, and Talon craned her neck to look back. The woman was writhing in her web just as the spider was writhing in its vines, but the spider looked like it was going to break out first. Talon gritted her teeth and pushed her palms against the ground, trying to stand, but faltered. It was like her midsection was missing, suddenly numb and useless. She braced her side with her fist, punching herself and putting pressure on it, but it was for nothing. She could not stand.  
Talon could feel the spider’s venom with every beat of her heart, a pulsing pain that shot deeper and more thoroughly through her body with every second. She could hear the beast thrashing against her spell, more powerful than the poachers or wild animals she typically used it on, and knew it would soon break. With bared fangs, the tabaxi dug her nails into the ground and began to drag herself towards the dwarf.

She grabbed the flickering torch and began to crawl, all feeling fading from her waist as she was barely able to convince her paws to help push. The sound of roots and vines ripping free of the ground behind her spurred her desperate movements, digging and clawing her way slowly along the forest floor. The pulsing pain made its way to her head, clouding her senses and threatening to split her skull in two with every strain of her muscles. Her cheek hit the ground, now slick with phase spider blood, as she cried out in pain. She could feel unconsciousness tugging at the edge of her senses, like her dreams were begging to be viewed. She could no longer feel her chest or legs, and the ground was now surprisingly comfortable albeit cold and empty.  
“YER ALMOST THERE!”

The dwarf’s voice shook her momentarily and she gritted her teeth, pulling herself along the last few feet even as the spider regained its composure and began to lumber towards her from behind. Talon reached up with the torch, eyes shut tight, and hoped to the gods she managed to hit web.

“Hey, yer moving! Are ye finally up?”

A rough breath shuddered through Talon’s chest, waking her from her slumber. She opened her eyes and blinked once, twice, three times. Orange firelight flickered somewhere out of sight, illuminating the face of a kindly young dwarvish woman leaning down over her. Something pungent and acrid hung in the air.

“Can ye hear me?” the dwarf asked, her accent thick and her voice light and vivid like a tavern fiddle. The tabaxi tensed every muscle in her abdomen, feeling a dull, thudding pain. But it was better than nothing, she supposed. Talon relaxed, leaning her head back against the muddy ground and looking at the lone traveler.

“Aye,” she responded with an exhausted smile. The dwarf cracked a big grin and pointed over to Talon’s left, across from herself.

“It’s dead now,” she chirped, and the ranger turned to look. The phase spider was alight with crackling flames, its form collapsed and shriveling even as its many eyes began to pop and ooze down its body in the fiery heat. The shattered remains of a lamp lie discarded at its many feet, the very same the dwarf had been carrying earlier. Talon turned to look and, sure enough, the web she’d been crawling towards was no more. A few sticky strands still clung to the tops of the dead trees, gleaming in the firelight, but nowhere near enough to hold a squirming dwarf. She looked to the traveler with a tired grin.

“Fuck yeah it is.”

**Author's Note:**

> Send me requests on Curious Cat and check me out on Twitter for updates and porn! I host regular Dungeons & Dragons games on my Discord.  
> https://curiouscat.me/TheLanceManly https://twitter.com/TheLanceManly


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